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| Sexy, romantic Valentine's menus : French
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Ok, feeling peckish but still dieting, so here's another set of favourite menus perfect for a romantic meal. This time, French themed.
Well sort of - I've lived in Belgium for several years and the restaurants in Brussels are amazing, though the joke is that they serve French food in German portions hence general rotund nature of many of the population. So this is Belgian-influenced French food... The point is, French culture regards food as a sensual experience so it should be easy to find something that appeals to your appetites.
By the way, I'm not posting recipes, just menu suggestions. This is because I've found that typing the name of each dish into Google brings up a wealth of similar recipes, all of which look delicious and sometimes it's more fun to try different versions than be too prescriptive!
Starters
Ultimate would be foie gras, with fig confit, port gelee and toast. However, I know a lot of people have issues with foie gras production methods, so check out "faux gras" which is similar in taste but farmed in a more humane manner.
Bit of a theme for me, but seafood is a fabulous starter: I love smoked salmon, grilled prawns (I've only just learned to not be squeamish about peeling whole ones - some people say peeling a garlicky prawn is like undressing your food but I still can't see it like that) but particularly seared scallops. Whichever you chose, serve with rocket leaves, a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and a little French mustard, and if you can find it a few blobs of orange lump fish roe (like cheap caviar - which reminds me: smoked salmon blinis with soft cram cheese and topped with the roe is also fantastic).
If you are veggie and don't do fish, what about roasted cherry tomato soup? This is very versatile (can be served warm or chilled), light (usual contents includes vegetable stock, celery, carrot and loads of oven roasted cherry tomatoes, all blended together) and roasting the tomatoes gives real depth of flavour. If you like, add a shot of vodka, plus a drizzle of worcestershire sauce and a few drips of tabasco to make Bloody Mary soup. Yum.
Main course (entrees if you are American though that word can potentially cause real confusion for francophones in the US - an entree in French would be a starter as one is entering the meal...)
Moules mariniere with twice-fried chips is fabulous, potentially sexy, but not very romantic nor good for you.
Raymond Blanc's steak nature - that is oiled, seasoned, fried in a butter and a splash of oil, then with a little water added to make an emulsified sauce, with chips which have had parsley added in while being fried - now that is sexy. And probably my choice.
My husband says his favourite is duck, pan fried and served with "ses croquettes" or pommes salardaises. (I've always loved the fact that in French cooking some accompaniments are described as "ses" i..e belonging to the meat part of the meal. We've asked francophone friends why, and were told that some things just go together, shrug of shoulder. C'est evidente, quoi?)
There's a real theme in French cooking of taking a piece of meat or fish and serving it with an amazing sauce: in times past this enabled past their best cuts of meat not to go to waste - nowadays of course excellence in both is preferable. I love a reduced red wine sauce on steak or ostrich (Belgian - pesto also fabulous with an ostrich steak); brandy, mushroom and cream sauce (sometimes known as Archeduc); a champagne sauce with poultry; a white white sauce with fish (sea bass or sole for preference).
For vegetarians, an onion tarte tatin. I know, onions sound potentially hazardous to romance but slowly frying them, letting them caramelise and go sweet, adding blue cheese... mmm.
Oh but then there's gigot d'agneau roti (lamb) with braised endive/ chicory and creamy pommes dauphinoise... homemade tartiflette made from a whole reblochon cheese stuffed with bacon lardons and cubes of potato or bread served melting from the oven and served to each other on torn pieces of crusty french bread... I'm going to stop. Suffice to say that it's rare that I go to a French restaurant and don't find something I love on the menu.
Cheese
Ooh French cheese. So delicious, so not allowed in anything bigger than a matchbox-sized piece on my diet. Along with chocolate, cheese is one of my major downfalls that lead to me needing to diet in the first place.
In France I've normally been given a choice of a goats cheese (sometimes with a drizzle of honey) served on a mixed leaf salad, or a tasting plate of several cheeses from the region in which I'm staying. In Belgium you get the same thing, though often the selection is more international. I like a tiny piece of four: a soft cheese (a still chalky-centred camembert or ripe brie), a stinky one (st-marcellin or munster), a blue (st agur is my perfect blue) and a slightly harder cheese (like a tomme - tomme de savoie reminds me of childhood holidays).
Dessert
Buy it in. Seriously, in French cooking there is no shame in letting a professional patissieur do their job, and bringing home an elegant tarte au chocolat topped with gold leaf, or a raspberry bavarois.
If you make it, make sure you've got all the things you need. My husband spent one Valentine's day making a gorgeous chocolate creme brulee from scratch, but our kitchen blowtorch was running low on gas and they're just not so good under the grill. That said, his apple tarte tatin is brilliant and my clafoutis (batter pudding with bottled cherries) is pretty decent too. Neither are really sexy dessets, but knowing someone else made it for you with love, that's kind of romantic.
As a lighter dessert, soupe a la fraise is perfect: it's blitzed strawberries with creme de framboise and shredded mint leaves added, with balls of strawberry sorbet floating in it and a quenelle of minted cream in the centre.
Drinks
Sticking to French drinks, pineau de charentes, chilled, is medum sweet and slightly sticky and I think a great aperatif. (Please don't have whiskey as an aperatif - it's too filling, though it's a great digestif).
Champagne obviously. I genuinely love champagne and would drink it throughout a meal if I could - small producer Rene Geoffroy produced a wonderful rose that I love, I like dry, biscuity, not too fizzy but equally I like fresh, small rapid bubbling pale champagnes. I wish I could be as eloquent about it as Lilly Bollinger and her relationship with champagne: "I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty".
I'm not an ABC drinker (anything but chardonnay), but even so it took a while for me to realise the white wines I like are mainly chardonnay based: chablis, petit chabis, entre deux mers and sancerre. These all used to be hideously expensive in the UK but seem to be around five quid a bottle now for a perfectly decent one. I generally prefer rose to white (why can't I get accents on this wretched keyboard? There should be an acute accent above the e on rose), but other than rose sancerre, I prefer new world roses.
French reds can be amazing, but can be dire. I find it best to think grape variety rather than area: I do like Grenache Shiraz and Merlot. That said, St Chinian, Cahors or a decent Bordeaux - raspberry, blackcurrant or blackberry smell, feels full in your mouth: ruby or purple tint to the wineglass.
Digestifs - liqueurs of just about any fruit could be sexy, But I think a glass of champagne is infinitely preferable - sexy, sophisicated and the antidote to ginormous cards featuring padded hearts.. |
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Posted by rose22 on 2008-02-14 19:13:04 | Rating: | Views: 327
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